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AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress)

Definition: An accountability measurement defined by the No Child Left Behind Act that requires states to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically in order to identify schools in need of improvement.

What This Means: NCLB is generally understood by educators. How an individual state implements the AYP process is approved by the U.S. Department of Education. The concept behind NCLB is that all students should be proficient or progressing towards proficiency, that is, no individual student should be left behind. This means that the average of all students in a school, district, or state is not adequate to indicate how an individual student is performing. The most controversial requirement is for 100% of all defined subgroups of students to be at a proficient academic level by 2014. Schools and districts are supposed to have procedures in place to ensure proficiency is attained.